Bastard Homunculus: Reborn in the Corpse Pit

"Damn it...this isn't going well. The Captain is driving Colt further and further away from this area...he's clearly aware that we've got Teleport Spells and he's trying to prevent us from using it by not letting us regroup.

That's why he's forcing Colt away from me...and while that'll take the Archer out of the equation as far as Colt is concerned, it also means there are going to be a lot more arrows coming at me," Frowned Lexia, as she raced across to evade an incoming barrage of ice arrows, before springing back as Arren appeared in front of her and swung his fist at her face, his knuckles grazing the tip of her nose as she evaded a direct hit, before thinking to herself, "Guess I have no choice...I was hoping that I wouldn't have to reveal all the tricks up my sleeve here, but I can't keep holding back if this keeps up. I need to turn the tables..."

"Your stamina is impressive for an Assassin...but it's only a matter of time before we wear you down," Remarked Arren, as he teleported behind her and drove his right fist towards her back.

She swiftly sprang off to her left, his fist grazing her right side before he quickly backed away as several arrows came shooting down towards Lexia.

"Alright, here goes...[Bone Zone]," She chanted, before several sharp, curved bone spikes burst out all across her body, the arrows hitting the bones and shattering, cracks spreading out across the bones as the broken shards of ice fell onto the ground.

The cracked parts of the bones then fell off, before regrowing and repairing rapidly, as Lexia took in a deep breath and slowly exhaled.

Another arrow then came shooting towards her left shoulder, aiming for a gap between the bone spikes protruding out of her body, before another bone spike swiftly extended out of her shoulder, the arrow colliding against the tip of the spike and shattering upon impact.

A new Level 3 Spell she'd come up with during The Irregulars' grueling training up on the Pearl Mountains, which she'd named Bone Zone.

It allowed her to freely extend out bones from anywhere on her body, it required her to constantly run her Mana throughout her entire skeleton, so it was a fairly draining Spell.

However, it was also linked to her instincts and senses, so it worked as an almost automatic defense...if she sensed or noticed an incoming attack towards a certain spot on her body, the Spell would extend out bone spikes from that spot to intercept the attack.

She then glanced up at the building the Archer was atop of with a smirk, as the arrows stopped coming, before turning her gaze back as Arren teleported behind her.

He began to drive his fist towards her back, before stopping short and springing back as a couple of bone spikes rapidly extended out towards him, narrowly evading them.

"What's wrong? Aren't you going to attack?" Inquired Lexia with a smirk.

"No, why would I? There's no point if I can't land a hit, especially if I'll only hurt myself by trying," He responded with a confused tilt of his head.

"Tch, guess he's not easily provoked or taunted...alright, then, let's try something different...," Lexia thought to herself, before exclaiming, "Fine by me, if you aren't going to attack me, then I'll just have to attack you!"

Arren swiftly teleported away as Lexia unleashed a barrage of bone bullets towards him, her gaze darting about as he disappeared from sight before she quickly turned across as he reappeared several meters to her right, firing out a rapid, spiraling bone arrow towards him from her palm.

An ice arrow came shooting down and deflecting the bone, before Arren swapped places with Lexia, who spun around and launched another barrage of bone bullets at him.

Arren raced away to evade the bullets before teleporting again, reappearing several meters away while maintaining his distance.

Lexia continued relentlessly firing out her bone projectiles at the Knight, managing to graze him a few times but he was able to avoid any direct hits.

"Damn it, stay still and let me-...what the...!?" Exclaimed Lexia in alarm, as some of the bone spikes protruding out the front of her body cracked before shattering to pieces, before she stumbled back shakily.

Arren was quick to respond, teleporting in front of her and driving a rapid punch towards her stomach, his fist slamming onto that spot and eliciting a sharp gasp of pain from her.

"It looks like that Spell uses a lot of Mana. It's over now, surrender and-...achhh!" He began, before trailing off as Lexia swiftly grabbed hold of his forearm and crying out in pain as a couple of bone spikes shot out from the sides of her stomach and pierced into either side of his wrist before he could pull his arm back.

"Gotcha," Smirked Lexia as she let go of his arm and swiftly reached out, grabbing hold of his shoulders before chanting, "Now, [Branching Bones]!"

A sharp yell of pain rang out as bone spikes burst into Arren's shoulders from Lexia's palms, piercing into his flesh before branching out, getting firmly stuck in place as trickles of blood ran down his arms.

A couple of ice arrows came shooting down towards Lexia, who smirked and turned Arren across in the direction the arrows were coming from, holding him in front of herself like a shield.

Another pair of arrows quickly came zipping down, hitting the first two and deflecting them away before they could hit Arren.

"H-how...?" He stuttered with a grimace as his arms slumped to his sides, unable to so much as twitch a finger.

"Oh, I thought it was obvious...well, in a nutshell, it was all an act. I've got plenty of Magic Power to spare, I only acted like I'd lost control of my Spell to make it seem like you had an opening. And in our current position, your Archer friend can't fire any arrows at me without hitting you in the process. And since I'm in direct physical contact with you, you can't teleport to escape me," She chuckled in response.

"Th-that was so deceitful..."

"Huh? Well, yeah, no shit...you weren't going to attack me otherwise, so I had to trick you," She shrugged, before detaching the branched bone spike from her right hand and forming a hammer-shaped bone in it.

He began to try and back away in alarm, before she swiftly extended out downward-curved bone spikes from her knees, hitting his feet and piercing through, pinning them to the ground before she rapidly whipped the bone hammer across at the side of his head, a sharp think echoing out as it struck that spot, severely dazing him, before she knocked him out with another strike to the same spot.

She retracted the bone spikes pierced through his feet as she detached the branched bone spike growing out of his left hand, before she quickly sprang back as he collapsed onto his knees and fell over, as several ice arrows came shooting down towards her the instant Arren began to fall.

The arrows hit the ground around the spot where she'd been standing, before Lexia turned her attention to the top of the building, narrowing her eyes with a smirk, before chanting...

"[Bone Stilts]."

A pair of thick, sturdy bone pillars burst out of the soles of her feet, rapidly lifting her up through the air, a barrage of ice arrows plunging down towards her as she rose up with immense speed, before more bone spikes extended out of her body as the arrows closed in, intercepting them and shattering the projectiles to pieces, right as her bony stilts lifted her above the top of the building.

"Damn it...," Muttered the Archer, backing away warily.

"Hi, there...this is the second time we've fought, and I finally get to see you face-to-face. In fact, I created this particular Spell just for this, you should be honored. It's nice to meet you, First-Class Knight of the First Squad, Quila Edge," Lexia greeted her, as she detached the stilts from the soles of her feet and leapt onto the top of the building.

"That's quite the cocky look on your face. I wouldn't underestimate me if I were you...just because you've forced me into close-range, don't think you've won just yet. I may be an Archer, but I can more than hold my own in close combat," She warned Lexia with a grimace.

Quila Edge, widely considered to be the most skilled Archer in the Kingdom of Persona. She was in her late-twenties, with short black hair that was combed off to the left, dark pink eyes, a light brown complexion, and she was slightly shorter than Lexia with a slender, petite build.

"That's quite an unusual bow you've got there...ah, I see, it must be a Relic Armament. Well, now...this should be fun," Chuckled Lexia maliciously, as she stepped towards her opponent...

Meanwhile, a short distance away...

"Damn, you're good! I can see why Aster and Tacitus struggled against you!" Grinned Colt, as he ducked under the swing of Rione's hammer before getting low and whipping his dagger at the Knight's knees.

Rione swiftly sprang back, the tip of the blade cutting through the fabric over his knees and narrowly missing his skin, before he backed away a few meters and thrust his hammer in Colt's direction, firing out a powerful bolt of lightning at him.

Colt was quickly to race away, narrowly evading the lightning before firing out several blood needles at Rione from his left hand.

Rione swung his hammer across, unleashing crackling streaks of lightning out in front of him, which hit the incoming blood needles and evaporated them into clouds of red mist with a sharp sizzle.

He then shot towards Colt, firing out several blasts of lightning as Colt sent a number of blood tendrils shooting out towards him, vaporizing them as they collided against his lightning.

"[Piercing Lightning]," He chanted as he raised his right index finger towards Colt, firing out a rapid, narrow beam of lightning towards him.

Colt swiftly leapt off to his right, the beam grazing the side of his left arm and severely scorching his skin, his body stiffening up as he got electrocuted before Rione sprang towards him as he closed in, his hammer raised high.

Colt quickly raised his dagger up defensively, channeling his blood through his body with increased intensity to bolster his sturdiness, right as his knees buckled as Rione swung the hammer down and slammed it against the dagger, a deafening clang ringing out before intense sparks of lightning erupted from the head of the hammer.

The impact rattled the bones in Colt's arms, severely jarring them as he barely managed to stay standing under the force of Rione's strike, before he extended several blood tendrils from his back and sent them shooting out, starting to surround Rione.

Rione quickly jumped back as the blood tendrils rapidly converged in towards him, grimacing as a couple of the tendrils managed to graze his arms, drawing out trickles of blood before he backed away and got some distance.

"You're quite strong yourself...to think that an Assassin would be capable of pushing me to this extent, it's nothing short of remarkable. Looks like I'll have to take this more seriously...[Lightning Armor]," Chanted Rione, lightning bursting out around him before wrapping around his body, surrounding him in a crackling, electric glow, before he chanted again as he raised his right hand towards Colt, "[Grand Lightning Cannon]!"

A massive, wide blast of lightning erupted from his hand and barreled forward with immense speed, carving a path through the ground as the blast shot towards Colt rapidly.

As it closed in on him, Colt swiftly unleashed pressurized bursts of blood from his feet, launching himself several meters straight up into the air, narrowly evading the mass of lightning as it drilled across the ground.

"Two Level 3 Spells in rapid succession? Damn, this guy's a beast, even Aster can barely pull that off...even if wasn't holding back to avoid potentially killing him, I highly doubt I could beat him in a fair fight," Colt thought to himself, before his eyes widened in alarm as Rione lifted his gaze towards him and raised his hand in Colt's direction as his Grand Lightning Cannon Spell petered out.

Colt swiftly took aim as Rione locked onto him, as he began to plummet...

"[Piercing Blood]!"

"[Lightning Spear]!"

The pair fired out their Spells at each other simultaneously, and thus were each slow to react in response to the other's attack.

As the two Spells shot past each other in parallel, Rione's lightning grazed the top of Colt's left shoulder, electrocuting him before he hit the ground with a thud, unable to maintain his balance as his body stiffened up and collapsed onto the dirt, right as his Blood Spell sliced across Rione's right cheek and cut through the middle of his ear, inflicting a shallow gash across the side of his face as blood ran down from the wound.

Colt shakily got back onto his feet as Rione ran his sleeve across his cheek with a grimace, the pair eyeing each other warily...

"He's frighteningly good at direct combat for an Assassin, despite the fact that, based on what I've seen of his fighting style, he's stayed faithful to the Template...he must have trained relentlessly to get to this level," Surmised Rione, as he took a moment to compose himself, keeping his gaze firmly fixed onto Colt as he couldn't help but feel a sense of admiration for his opponent.

"Yeah...I'm at a definite disadvantage here, and that'll only be compounded the longer this fight drags on. Should I use my new trump card? No, I'll have to get a lot closer to use that, and there's no way I can survive for more than a few seconds at a time against him at close-range, he's a bad matchup for me against that Spell. Heh...yup, I might be in a bit of trouble here," Colt thought to himself with a wry smile, as a bead of sweat ran down the side of his face...